FBI chief: Crushing ISIS threshold may increase terrorism in West

FBI Director James Comey .testifies before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. July 14, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

New York: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey has warned that battlefield success against ISIS may lead to increased terrorism in the West.

Speaking to a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University this week, Comey predicted that eventually crushing ISIS in its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq will likely result in dispersing terrorists elsewhere, reports CNN.

“At some point there is going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve never seen before. Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield,” said Comey.

Comey’s warning that the collapse of the caliphate will mean increased attacks in Western Europe and the United States reflects a consensus among intelligence officials.

He compared it to the formation of al-Qaeda, which sprouted from fighters who had been hardened and radicalized fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“This is an order of magnitude greater than anything we’ve seen before. A lot of terrorists fled out of Afghanistan… this is 10 times that or more,” said Comey.

He added that the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris earlier this year give a foresight into the future.

The FBI Director pointed that it is just not the West but recently ISIS has stepped up attacks worldwide, including in countries near its home base territory that has been shrinking due to military losses in Iraq and Syria. (ANI)